


Apoptosis

by Jagopolis



Series: a bouquet of candytuft and zinnia [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Character Study, Identity Issues, hair-cutting, hajime in a bathroom at the island-, it's just after dr2, toko is mentioned if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22075963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jagopolis/pseuds/Jagopolis
Summary: Apoptosis/ˌapə(p)ˈtəʊsɪs/NounThe death of cells which occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism's growth or development.--Hinata Hajime... no, Kamakura Izuru, no, wrong.A survivor of the killing school trip stares at himself in the mirror and doesn't like it.
Series: a bouquet of candytuft and zinnia [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1847659
Comments: 1
Kudos: 81





	Apoptosis

He never paid that much attention to his reflection in the mirror.

  
Of course, he remembered these moments when he'd just stop to ponder his appearance. He wasn't some narcissist after all. Sometimes, he'd wake up and spend a solid minute looking deep into his own eyes, without any clear sense or purpose. Just spend a minute with himself and himself only. Just spend a minute with no one but his own reflection blankly staring back at him. Sometimes he'd stop to quickly fix his spikey hair.

  
He remembered these moments when he stopped looking at himself. What was the purpose? He knew his appearance. He could predict how his hair would behave. His long, dark hair. Eyes, red from... what? From the experiments? Did the scientists remove the pigmentation they had? They didn't remove the color of his hair, but he never made any mistakes in his judgment. It must've been it. An unforeseen side effect of becoming the Ultimate Hope.

  
In hindsight, that appearance made it so much easier to blend in with the Ultimate Despair.  
In hindsight, that appearance made it so much harder to move on.

  
He's been out of the program for five hours now. The last three of those spent in this small room.

Mismatched eyes staring back at his mismatched soul.

  
One of the eyes, the olive one, seemed a little scared. Nervously examining itself, his face, finally, the other eye. The red one stared with indifference. Not understanding the other's irrational panic.

  
And for the first time in three hours, he finally managed to end the staring contest he held with himself.

  
He moved his eyes to lay upon the tiles decorating the walls of the small room he hid in. They weren't reflective and that was sort of the point. This way, he couldn't see himself anymore. This way, his eyes couldn't fight over the rights to his soul.

  
With a sigh, he leaned backward, against the cold tiles. Using a deep breath, he attempted to blow a particularly stubborn cowlick. It turned out to be too long and heavy to simply move out of his way. Was it just him or was his hair... strange?

  
Naegi told him that while their minds were stuck inside the simulation, their bodies didn't sustain any damage or changes. Even those killed didn't change. Well, except for their hair. It kept growing, of course, and one of the first things everyone did was take care of their rather messy appearance. Naegi also added that his hair looked really nice. And soft. And then awkwardly laughed and walked away. He's a nice guy.

  
Back to his hair though, it really was strange. Almost reaching the floor when he stood upright, yet not damaged at all. It seemed darker than what he remembered from the program. It seemed lighter than what he remembered from despair.

  
So, for sure it was a bit longer than last time. Or, a lot longer. But was it darker or lighter? It wasn't black, for sure. It wasn't the familiar shade of brown either. He grabbed a strand and brought it before his eyes to examine it further.

  
Or was it just the two of his eyes having a different way of viewing it?

  
This thought, this possibility of a split in his worldview made him shiver. The movement caught his attention and soon he found himself staring at the mirror once again. Under the long hair, glaring at himself with just his red eye, his identity seemed almost obvious. Almost boring.

Izuru Kamukura stared at himself in the mirror.

 **I**  
**zu**  
**ru**  
**Ka**  
**mu**  
**ku**  
**ra.**  
  
No-! No! They went over this with Chiaki! Izuru was no more, the bored, somewhat failed experiment wasn't who he was now!

  
Oh really? Then, who's sitting right here?

  
Hair, hair, it's all because of this long, too long, far too long hair! Get rid of it, get rid of it now, don't let it dictate who you are!

The drawers were almost empty, save for basic sanitary products. Toothpaste, soap, toothbrush-

Yes! Scissors! They looked a little out of place, but right now Izuru, no, Hajime didn't mind.

  
He vaguely wondered if they were meant for cutting something else, before grabbing some of his locks and pulling them, pulling, pulling, and oh, how he wished they would just come off like that! But they didn't, and so, his hand now armed with the twin blades did the work.

  
Chop, chop, chop.

  
Large, no, gigantic amounts of now redundant hair fell to the ground. But just one piece wasn't enough. He kept going. More and more and more and more. Don't stop until it's all gone. Don't stop until he is nothing but Hajime Hinata.

  
**Ha**  
**ji**  
**me**  
**Hi**  
**na**  
**ta.**  
  
****

**BANG! BANG! BANG!**

"Hajime! Hajime! You there?"

The loud banging and shouting from behind the closed door made him freeze and turn towards the noise.

  
"Y-yeah. Yeah!"

Even his voice sounded a little off.

"Listen, Naegi wants to talk to us before they go to HQ or something. You better not be late."

  
And with that, the other person left. Leaving Hajime alone in the bathroom.

...what _was_ that just now?

  
Around him, a quite large pile of his own hair laid useless. Dead now. In his hands, the murder weapon.

  
Huh.

  
To assess the damage done, he once again turned to the damned mirror.

  
It looked strange. He looked strange. His right side, the one with the olive eye, had its hair cut short, almost as short as he wore it before the Tragedy. His left side, the one with the red eye, still had long hair.

  
Now, he looked like two people sown together. In the literal sense.

**I**  
**Ha zu**  
**ru ji**  
**Ka me**  
**Hi mu**  
**na ku**  
**ra. ta.**  


He can't go out like that. Now he needs to cut all of his hair to match one length.

  
One length, one person.

  
Hajime Hinata proceeded to cut the rest of his hair to be the same length.  
Izuru Kamukura accompanied him.

  
When the job was done, he examined his work. Nicely done, for the first part being an irrational decision made under the influence of emotions.

  
Just one last correction to his amazing ahoge and done.

  
A little longer than before the Tragedy, a lot shorter than after it.

  
****

**Hajime Hinata.  
Izuru Kamakura.**

  
No, it's pointless. He was himself. A different person from the past.

  
Now, it was time to leave the bathroom. He had a meeting to attend to.

  
****

**Hajime Kamukura.  
Izuru Hinata.**

  


left the bathroom with a nice new haircut.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed my self-indulgent character study. And, since I'm posting this before midnight, happy birthday Hajime. And happy 2020 to you all! Also sorry for the slightly weird formatting, I'm posting in a hurry, I will come back and fix it!
> 
> Edit: I never did, weLp. I also never suspected this would get more attention than like 5 folks so, uh. I suppose if you wanna find me I'm at https://jagopolis.tumblr.com/ ?


End file.
